Holy
by LoweFantasy
Summary: Sequel to Cumin, Plain, Gang, but can be read on its own. Mai is preoccupied with building relationships with her soon-to-be in-laws, but SPR's ultra ritzy, high profile case in a famous hotel could turn her plans of a wedding into a funeral. No one can be trusted, no one is in the right place at the right time, and Masako and John are acting dangerously and oddly daring.
1. Prologue

Holy

By LoweFantasy

Prologue

"Buy me a new TV?"

Naru didn't even look up from the papers sprawled out before him. "No." He must have found what he was looking for, for he turned his focus back up to his computer screen and continued typing. I pouted.

"But I can't afford one. Please?"

"Fiancé' doesn't make me your wallet, Mai. Honestly, I thought better of you." Type-ity type type.

I sighed loudly and dropped the cute act. I had wanted to try it just once, to see if it would work. I knew it wouldn't but it didn't hurt to try. "Well, if you're going to drop that bomb, fine: you break it you buy it. I'm also going to need a half a dozen mugs which you broke too."

He gave a grunt, not even a hiccup in the tippity tap of his typing. "Alright, I'll bring by some mugs later, but I think you'd do better without the TV."

I gawked. "You broke it!"

"On accident."

"Dah—jee—that's so not cool! Are you going to go around getting rid of my stuff when we're married just because you think I'd do better without? How high handed can you get?!"

With a rather violent slap of the space bar, he finally looked my way. I could see the reflection of the word processor in his dark eyes.

"I already have a TV," he said in that 'you're a moron, so I'm going to say it very slowly' tone. "I didn't think we'd need two. But since I'm so high handed, go make me some tea, and while you're at it, why don't you do what I pay you to do in the first place?"

Smack. Bang. Double slap.

Stinging, angry, embarrassed, but mostly just angry, I was none too kind on closing the door behind me. The asshole could have said that from the start, but no! Had to keep working on his blasted whatever research book of nerdy-nerdom and not give a thought to how worked up I was getting over it. Instead of just saying all that from the beginning—scratch that—he could have just said he was thinking of the future and not add all that insult to the end of it. 'Why don't you go and do what I pay you to do' my ass! I was on my lunch break!? And it wasn't like I had too much to do other than return a few more calls to clients he had rejected and collect articles I thought were suspicious.

I almost put salt into his tea instead of sugar. Almost. If only I had shaving cream instead of milk cream, that would be rich. Literally.

Jerk was still typing away like the arse he was when I brought in his tea. I could pour it over his stupid special 'V' shaped keyboard that was supposed to prevent carpal tunnel. How about that?

Ugh, but that would be immature and then he'd just glare at me and then maybe he might not feel too keen on marrying me anyways…

So I just set it there (though I would rather throw it), and said, "Loving you is so inconvenient to having a proper tantrum, you know that?"

If I didn't sound so pissed, he might have smiled. Instead he just took up the teacup and sipped it. At least he bothered to sit back a bit in order to enjoy the first hot taste.

"That's unfortunate, though I also have someplace I'd like you to check out this afternoon for me. Tell me what you feel."

I puffed a strand of hair out of my face. "Alright. Though wouldn't you rather Masako?"

"Ms. Hara isn't my employee. Also, she has a career of her own. Besides, you do just fine."

"I'm so glad." Hear that drip drip on the floor? That's sarcasm, Noll dear. Actually…wait, no that's not. That's good. Less association with Masako. Yes.

He set down his tea, typed a few more sentences, then pulled out a pen and notepad from a drawer. After scribbling an address down, he tore it off and handed it to me.

"Take a little walk inside. Ask a few questions of the management, if you can."

"Okay…" I glanced down at the address and blanched. "This is a—you want me to just walk into a five star hotel?!"

"Why not? It's not like you're going to be sleeping in any of the rooms or eavesdropping on their clients."

"This is where presidents and stars go, I'll look like a complete creep!" A really poor, plain complete creep. "Do they even have a reception area? Or is the entrance just an elaborate grand hall of gold and marble?"

There we go, there was the twitch of the mouth. "It's just a hotel, Mai. Five star or not. And make sure you get a good look at the ballroom as well."

"Why? Have people been sighting ghosts there?"

"No, those are on the upper floors. I just want to know your thoughts on having a wedding there."

I stared. So soon after the whole TV fight? "You have no feel for mood, do you?"

"Pardon?"

"Nothing. Sure. I'll take a look at it. But I've always liked the idea of a simple wedding outside, in the sun. Besides, where would you get the money to pay for the rent on a ballroom like that? I mean, a ghost hunting business isn't a freaking gold mine." I glanced down at the simple solitaire diamond ring on my finger. I didn't even know if he was still making payments on that, or even if it was a real diamond. The gold was real, though I'd seen rings like it online for little over one thousand yen.

"The ballroom request isn't from me," he said, now fully back to his typing. "It's from my mother. Oh, and she's coming into town tonight with my father, so mind you get back by six from the hotel."

" _Excuse me?!_ Short notice much?"

He sighed and paused to close his eyes and pinch the bridge of his nose. "There's no need to yell."

"Oh hell there is. There's something called letting people know ahead of time so they can plan!"

"It's just my parents. What's to plan for?"

"Just your—What if I had had plans tonight?"

"You don't."

"That's not the point! What if they hate me? What if they pop over to my house and think I'm a complete slob?"

"You keep your apartment quite clean."

"That's not-" I clamped my mouth closed and took a deep, slow breath through my nose. I had to remember, Naru was too stupid to understand common social etiquette. I had to be logical, not polite. Polite was illogical (no it wasn't).

When I opened my eyes, Naru was looking at me, fingers to his keyboard, his mouth in a straight, pensive line.

"Should I have really told you sooner?"

He had lowered his voice, as he always did when asking questions like these, as though someone might hear him. After all, he was debasing himself from his god-like platform of knowing everything at all times.

If he could do it, I could too. Meeting at the half-way point and all that.

"It's polite to," I said slowly. "But it's probably just me being caught off guard and feeling…insecure. It's probably best this way. I would have just spent the extra time freaking out, not preparing or anything."

"There's nothing to prepare for. All you have to do is be yourself. They're just people."

"People who are going to be my family. My parents." I bit my lip from saying, 'I don't have any parents, after all.'

A whole world of thoughts and insecurities opened up in the pregnant silence. I could see in his gaze that he drank it all in, saw it all, heard it all: this was to be my new family, my ONLY family. What if they didn't like me? What if they didn't accept me? What if they told Naru 'no way'?

Then he blinked back to the screen and it was closed.

"You have nothing to be afraid of," he said crisply. "You have a natural warming affect on people. I don't know if you have noticed, but your coworker's affection for you is unnaturally high. They consider themselves your family already. I highly doubt my parents won't do the same—ignoring the fact that they're already determined to love you if for nothing else than to ensure that you will allow them access to their grandchildren."

There was the magic word that always lit me up quicker than chocolate. _Babies._

Naru knew it, for I could see him slouch a bit more over his computer as I beamed.

"And there's that too," he muttered. "You're any in-law's dream."

I inwardly twirled a bit as pre-formulated images of babies I had spent many hours geeking out over ran through my mind, all with different bits of Naru shuffled in and adorable, pudgy limbs.

Naru sighed. "When are you leaving for the hotel?"

"After I return these calls. I can finish my sandwich on the run."

"Well be careful. Knowing you, you'd probably run out at a green light and get hit by a semi."

But I hardly heard him. I had already spun out of his office to get back to work.

 **Alright, here's the deal: I got two really big ghostwriting jobs and possibly a third on the way. This equates to about 3,600 words a day I have to write. This being said, I won't be able to do any quizzes or super purge updates. You're probably going to get one chapter a week. How can I find time to write this story when I have three other ones for clients you ask? Because freelance ghostwriting is a lot like being a whore. A cheap whore. So I like to take comfort in giving my love to someone who actually cares at the end of the day, aka, I need to be able to write for somebody who actually just wants to enjoy my story, not trying to get rich off of me.**

 **Otherwise...I start to hate my craft.**


	2. Be Mine

Chapter 1

The hotel, with all its gleam and glam, was just that: gleam and glam. There were so many fabulous people walking about and the overwhelming shock and awe laced through every wall and trim sort of distracted me from any and all sensitive clairvoyant feelings.

Thus, I had little to report to Naru as he drove us in Lin's car to the airport, where we were to be picking up his parents. They would be staying with him and Lin for the two week visit. I almost shouted at Naru again for the short warning when he informed me that, while his mother spoke excellent Japanese (she had wanted to know what him and Gene were muttering to each other all the time, after all), his father had never been able to catch on. While brilliant in the areas of paranormal psychology and psychic research, languages weren't his forte.

I could have practiced my English. Gah, I suck at English. Reading and writing it is fine, but saying those words? Ugh, they're all in the front of the mouth till you feel like your howling all the time. And then the pronunciation rules? There were no rules! Kind of came in the realm of having French words mixed and shaken with German grammar. Stupid Germans having their stupid affair with stupid France and making stupid English.

Before I was ready—damn Naru—I was standing in an airport terminal, not unlike the one I had bowled into to catch a Gene-possessed-Naru, and facing two very English looking strangers. It didn't help that Naru's mother even had the big blue eyes and blond hair. On the other hand, his father was all dark and corners, complete with a furry, bearded face and black eyes like glittering stones beneath bushy eyebrows.

Naru cleared his throat. "Mai, let me intro—"

"Oliver!" shrieked his mother in complete ecstasy, attracting more than several stares in the airport. Before Naru could react she flung herself onto his neck and started showering him with loud kisses. It would have been less funny if Naru didn't stay completely taciturn and solid beneath the onslaught, as though she were doing no more than shaking his hand.

"How dare you spend so long in Japan without even a visit! Have you no idea what you did to my poor mommy nerves?"

"I visited for a whole month last summer."

" _Last summer!_ At least now I know you were torturing me for a good reason." She paused in her glomping of Naru's head to zoom in on me.

I instinctually seized up. For a brief, horrifying minute I thought she was about to scold me for snickering.

But just as quickly as she had come upon Naru, she was before me, taking up my hands and gazing into my eyes.

"You're Mai, right? Little Mai-chan?"

Did he call me that to his mom? No way. "Uh…yes?"

Her face broke into sunshine. "Oh my gosh, you're _adorable!_ "

And then I was being squeezed too. Fortunately for me, she must have had some sense for personal space, as she quickly let go and gave me some distance. The smile wilted a bit with a touch of solemnity, and for the first time she appeared the forty or odd some years she was.

"Will you be mine?"

For a moment, I just stared at her, stunned by the sudden embrace and exuberance. A thought in my head worried that she would be the type to love anyone and then forget about them as she bounced to the next, but the sudden, painful apprehension in her eyes that brought the lines to her face and mouth banished that idea. Instead I saw a woman who had had the heart to adopt to very strange boys, and who had recently had to bury one.

My eyes filled up with tears.

Naru and his father turned alarmed and reached out for his mother, who suddenly looked devastated.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" she said.

"Mother—" started Naru.

"Can I?"

They all stopped. His mother had her hands to her mouth.

Suddenly feeling very silly and very dramatic, I blinked hard to rid the water from my eyes and tried to laugh it off, which, of course, came out nervous and stupid sounding. I wanted to melt into the floor—turn into puddy, or even better, be chopped up by an axe and made into mud so I'd disappear entirely. Aw gosh, my first meeting with Naru's parents, and I'd put them all on end suddenly tearing up like that and acting like a complete sensitive weirdo—

Her hands wrapped about mine, dry but soft as a baby's blanket and warm.

"In that case, I'm sorry, but you're not going anywhere. You have to marry my Noll. No escapes."

Hot in the face, but jittery and light, I peeked up to meet her smiling blue eyes and couldn't help but smile as well.

"Well," Naru took back his hands, looking a bit flushed himself. "Guess that works. And if you haven't noticed him, this is my father."

His mother practically flew from me to push forward Mr. Davis, who smiled awkwardly and stood before me like the big rectangle man he was in his grey suit and beard. But, as I shook his hand, I got the impression that he was just as nervous as I was. He probably was afraid of scaring away the girl Naru had finally found that would put up with him.

Even though it was seven in the evening by the time we made it out to the car, Naru's mother insisted on dropping by one of those late-night ramen shops, where she bounced between embarrassing displays of affection for Naru (kisses, hugging his arm, ruffling his hair, gushing about how cute he was, all of which he bore with the same straight faced dignity), slurping the ramen, and asking me questions on everything from my favorite food to my shoe size.

When I mentioned I loved mysteries and the show _Sherlock,_ she let loose a girlish squeal.

"Benedict is a comely man, but then he gets into the role and starts _talking_ —oh, Oliver, dear, why can't you talk like that? You are some sort of detective, right?"

I had to laugh at that. Like copy and paste, she had wondered the same thing I did almost word for word.

By the time she finally let Naru go to take me home, I was half-asleep, though deliriously pleased with my day. I didn't even notice I had dozed off until the summer air brushed past my face with the creaking night noises and Naru's arms slipped under my knees and around my shoulders. I almost woke up then to insist I could walk, but then he lifted me to his warm chest and I got a great lungful of his tea and sage smell. If there was anything in the world that had been out of place before then, the smell of my boy put it right. Nothing could be wrong when he held me so close.

Course, my locked door had to put a stop to that, and he nudged me enough out of my sleepy doze to wriggle my key into the doorknob and push it open. He made to leave once the door was open, but my arms (probably drugged by the wonderful haven they had been in while being carried), drunkenly winded themselves about his arm. Too sleepy to come up with a good excuse for what I had done, or even what to do now that I had a Naru's arm captive, I just slumped into him and nuzzled my face against his neck.

"I love you," I mumbled. "I loveayou loveayou. Mmmph."

His breath ghosted across my forehead and I received the pleasure of hearing his quiet laugh—one of his real, happy laughs, which were as rare as blue moons.

"You're going to need to let go of my arm to go to bed."

"But I wanna taaaalk."

He didn't point out that I had barely the consciousness to do that, as he usually would. Instead, he said, "About what?"

"Your mom and dad." I gave a happy sigh. "They're so nice."

I could feel his smile against my hair as he pushed open the door to my apartment and led me in.

"Trust me, my mom isn't like that towards everyone. She's actually pretty non-touchy—with anything that's not her husband or children…or like unto it. I think if my father hadn't been there to remind her of her limits she might have adopted the whole orphanage. I'm pretty sure she saw you as another one of those children, eighteen or not."

"That's a gift," I mumbled, and it was. Not everyone could love a child that wasn't their own so unconditionally. My Naru arm was trying to escape my grasp, but I didn't let it. It was dark in my house. He sighed, and I thought he'd push me off, but then I heard the slide of my closet and knew my futon was nigh. Within minutes he had it out and I had my lure to let go of his captive arm. I barely had the mind to kick off my shoes before curling up in the softness.

"I love you," I mumbled again. "You're so cool."

"Good to hear you're seeing the light."

I vaguely slapped in the direction I thought he would be. "Shuddup. We all know you have self-esteem issues."

"Only you. Confidential. Never to be opened." I could smell his musk again and felt the heat of his lips against my forehead. "I love you too."

I think he left then, or maybe I fell asleep first, but his warm hand on mine lingered even after I had given in to the darkness.

 **Turns out one of my clients canceled on me...so before I find another job to take his place (or bump up my word count for the one I got), I'm going to binge write a whole bunch on 'Holy.' ^.^ I hope you like it!**

 **Also, for those of you who enjoyed my first book, "Out of Duat," my second book is coming out soon. ^.^ Interested? No, it's not a sequel to Duat, but a stand alone YA romance about a girl with an anxiety disorder falling in love with her teacher. Then there's a creepy child molesting teacher and her best friend being blackmailed, her mom being blackmailed, let's just black mail everyone-oh, and the fact that there's no way she can have a relationship with her teacher legally...when it rains, it pours. But she overcomes it all in the end by learning what it means to care for your loved ones by caring for yourself.**

 **Let me know what you think!**


	3. Peninsula Tokyo

**Because I know what it's like to need updates on a story. Makes you want to take the author hostage, tie them to a chair, and force them to write until the story is finished.**

 **And since that's technically WRONG and ILLEGAL, you're stuck suffering, sooo...here you go. Two chapters at once.**

Chapter 2

Naru had me call in the whole team the next morning for a debriefing of the hotel case and our client (minus Yasu, he had a final exam he couldn't miss and wasn't technically part of the team). Even Masako found the time to come, although she wouldn't meet anyone's eyes and kept staring off into the distance. I tried not to leave my left hand and the engagement ring out in the open. Making it seem like I was gloating would make it worse.

He plunged headfirst into it.

"Like with Urado's mansion, this is to be a very low-profile case, for obvious reasons. I'm sure Mai has filled you in on the place we are investigating."

"Do we get to stay there?" asked Ayako. "Oh please say yes."

Naru didn't even look up. "Yes."

Ayako gave a whoop of delight.

Takigawa's eyes were popping. " _The_ Peninsula? Where only everyone who's everyone stays?"

"My, don't you sound like a groupie."

"Shut up, Ayako."

"Since I'm certain you can read," Naru crossed his legs and folded his arms. "I'll pretend you didn't ask that. Several classified customers have been complaining of knocking sounds, furniture moving when no one has been in the room, doors opening and closing, voices, and sightings of ghostly figures on the eighteenth floor, among other poltergeist sightings. I'm inclined to think of the case minor, if there's anything paranormal at all, but the money they offered wasn't anything sneeze at."

"Yeah, and since our Naru here's going to have a wife to support soon…"

A general air of 'ooo' came over Ayako, Takigawa, and John, though Masako just glared and Lin didn't even respond. I could feel heat crawling into my cheeks, but Naru pretended as though Takigawa hadn't said anything.

"They've given us three days to investigate and no more. We're to keep a low profile, so all of you are required to sign an agreement after this that you will essentially not tell anyone, why we are staying there, what we are doing or even that we're working together at all. They were quite strict on this, so I trust you will be adults about this and not cause me any trouble."

"Yes sir," said Takigawa, John, and I, so completely in time we grinned.

"Due to the fact this is a modern hotel, we have very little history and too many people to work with. I will be depending heavily on your ability to stay on your toes and gather clues. We will be given the floor known for the most activity, but I will be sending you on periodic rounds to the other levels known for poltergeist activity. If Yasu didn't have exams I'd leave it to him to question the clientele who are our witnesses. He seems to manage that well enough. But I'll be leaving that to you, Mai."

"If you're saying he's better with people than you, that's the understatement of the century."

Naru glared at me. I just grinned, confident I was too cute to be punished.

"Mai, you'll also act as relay at base once you're done setting up the cameras."

"What?!"

"And yes, that means you aren't going anywhere." I saw a twitch of his mouth that I hoped only I would notice. Guess that's what I get for messing around, but still…ugh.

"Learning from pass experiences, I would appreciate it if Ms. Matsuzaki set up a kikai barrier around base. Since the hotel is offering us the complete floor, I'd like everyone to have their own room for observation purposes, but should you get uncomfortable I'd like there to be a safe place for everyone to go to. Takigawa and John, you're the spiritual muscle of the team, so I'll be depending on you should anything come up. Masako, I know how much this is a strain on your time, so once you are satisfied with what you can glean from the area, you are free to go."

"It's no problem," she said softly. "I can manage three days."

"It's appreciated. Lin will be working with me to pick out any other customers who might have witnessed anything odd, as well as data collection. Lin is back up for John and Takigawa, and if possible, for Masako as well. Any questions?"

John raised a hand. "Um, yeah, do we have any stories to work off? I mean, what exactly happened to the clients?"

"Nothing alarming, but enough for the hotel to be concerned about the rumors spreading that the floor might be haunted, or worse, unstructurally sound. Not good for ratings. But I've underestimated a case before, that's why Ms. Matsuzaki will maintain the base barriers. The main reason I've called you all in, though, is simply because of the amount of ground we need to cover. This place isn't exactly small. If that's all, I'll see you there."

Since there wasn't room in the van for three people with all the equipment loaded in, I road with John in his fugly Toyota. We chatted about general happenings in each other's lives that had occurred between the last case we had together and now, which was a grand total of two weeks. I told him how I felt I was going crazy without Netflix and was having to resort to binge reading murder mysteries. I was even considering stealing one of Naru's books to fill my time.

"Why would you have to steal them? Wouldn't he be delighted to see you reading them?" Everyone had heard our ongoing argument on the pseudo-negative effects of TV.

"That's the point. I can't stand the idea of facing his smug little face as I take one down. I can almost hear his thoughts: 'yes, my peon, flourish in the way of the light!'"

John laughed.

The Peninsula Tokyo hotel towered above us as we parked and made our way through the front entrance. Its glass face flickered with reflections, reminding me of eyes.

The front deskman gave us our room card keys (so many that he handed them over in a little baggy), and we piled into the elevator to the tune of Ayako's squeals. I rolled my eyes all the way up seventeen floors, past soft ocher wallpaper, across elaborate carpets, and then up to sliding my card key into the door slot.

My eyes became stuck once that door opened and the automatic lights lit up with a warm glow.

It was just like my studio apartment, except for it wasn't. Twice the size, decorated and furnished in modern architecture, and dominated by a brownie shaped king sized bed slathered in pillows, I wondered for the first time in my life just what kinds of awesome stuff could I be missing by being lower-middle class. In the next instant, I felt disgusted. So much money…just how many months of groceries could I buy with just one of the chairs? Or that stainless steel microwave? Or that ginormous flat screen TV hung up on the wall? Oh my gosh, that thing was as narrow as my pinky!

In the room next to mine, I heard Ayako's heightened shrieks of delight as something hit the wall. She must have thrown herself face first onto her bed. Those five star walls had held up, however, as the only reason I had been able to hear her at all was because our doors were open.

"Yes yes, it's all very nice," came Naru's voice from the hallway. "But there's still paperwork to sign and temperatures to record. We're on a tight schedule."

Sensing a long afternoon ahead, I pocketed my card key and closed the door on all the luxury.

As the last brush of air slipped out of the door, carrying with it the scent of the cleaners and air fresheners used on the room, a tendril of cold tightened about my chest and couldn't shake off the sudden impression that someone was still in there.

Yay.


	4. Room Service

**Because I like you.**

Chapter 3

Like a parent intent not to let their children be spoiled, Naru ran us ragged carrying a billion tons of equipment across several floors of parking garage to the elevator, setting up cameras in each of our rooms, catching various managers in various meeting rooms for final check ins, and running up and down the entire hotel to get temperature readings on each of the floors. He also tasked us with hiding thermographers on every floor, which one of the superintendents was more than a little insanely tense about doing. I couldn't even step right without one of his eyeballs bulging at me, so Naru ended up following him around to the security room, which they had offered to us as a sort of extra observation room. I'm glad I wasn't there when Naru had to explain to the guy that we needed temperature readings of each floor, not just visual.

The security personnel were added to our system and were to contact us if they saw anything strange, which meant…not much.

By the time we finally gathered at base, exhausted, spent, and stressed out of our minds, it was thirty minutes to midnight and none of us had eaten dinner. Needless to say, a few of us were a little hangry. Surprisingly, I wasn't one of them. I just turned into zombie and collapsed on the floor the first chance I got, moaning for brains.

"Where's Naru?" groaned Takigawa.

There were general, garbled mumbles (more like ape noises), of 'I dunno.' Even Lin wasn't doing much other than sitting there and staring at the control console as though it could awake his calorie deprived soul.

As though summoned by the dying moans of his crew, Naru appeared, along with a rolling tidal wave of delicious, meaty scent. All of us perked up like dogs. He carried several bags of aluminum wrapped somethings.

"Philly cheese steak sandwiches," he dropped them on the nearest table. "Dig in."

Those sandwiches didn't stand a chance. We didn't even bother using the sofas allotted to the small meeting room we were given, we just sat in a circle on the carpet and munched away in silence. Only Masako seemed to eat with any grace.

Naru went up to the monitors, munching on his own sandwich. We had had to bring in two of our longest tables, so Naru faced an L-shaped wall of screens that took up two walls of the meeting room. The modern paintings that had been behind them were nowhere to be seen.

I watched him count each pair of monitors; one pair for each floor of the hotel, then a pair for each one of our rooms on the eighteenth floor.

"Mai, did you order any room service?"

I snorted. "Forget how, when? I haven't even seen that room since we set up cameras."

His jaw, which had been chewing, stilled. The next second, he flicked on the recording switch and turned on the speakers. White static picked up over the room.

In one smooth movement, Lin stood and was at Naru's side, staring at those same monitors. He was soon joined by Takigawa, then John, and finally me.

On the screen there was a dark haired woman, sitting on the end of my bed. She wore what could have been a white polo and pants (hotel cleaning crew, right?), but she didn't seem to be doing anything other than sitting there.

Just as I was about to ask whether one of us should go down and see what's going on, all lights flicked off. Pitch blackness swallowed us up like Jonah in the whale. A distant rattling, like the diseased breathing of a giant in the walls, started up. Somewhere to our left the door clicked open, then slammed shut.

It was only through work experience that none of us started to scream.

When the electricity flicked back on and we were able to see the monitors again, the woman had vanished.

"Well," said Takigawa. "That was covert."

"Does this mean this spirit is extra powerful?" I asked.

"No," said Naru, who had leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "If there is a ghost here it's use to outsiders. This hotel is a transient place. Strangers wouldn't bother them."

"So same old same old?"

"Guess we'll know once we get some witness reports in, eh?" Naru looked to me, pointing to a folder at the end of the table. "You'll find your people in there. I expect you to get on those first thing in the morning."

"And the questions I need to ask?"

"I have a general list in there as well. Matsuzaki, did you get those warding charms up?"

"Uh, no. Duh. You've been running me like some sort of slave all day, or don't you remember?"

"Please finish that before you head to bed."

"Do you have any idea what time it is? I'm exhausted, Naru, it can wait one night! No one's died or gone missing at this hotel, right?"

"Hard to say. This hotel has been the sight of disappearances and kidnappings throughout its history. The rich and famous tend to attract that sort of attention, I daresay."

"We'll be especially safe then, and a good thing, because I'm doing it in the morning. Thanks for the sandwiches-good night."

She more or less stormed out before anything could be asked of her. John and I exchanged glances and shrugged.

"Mai, if you would be at base first thing in the morning. And don't fall asleep."

I wilted. Oh yeah. The boring job. Radio girl. Ground control to Major Tom.

"Takigawa, John, rest up. The moment we can narrow down the areas of activity we'll be trying exorcisms. The simplest solutions are best tried first."

"Roger," said John and Takigawa, which took Naru's nod as their permission to head off to bed, leaving Masako, Lin, Naru, and me.

"Ms. Hara, I hope you know I only sent you off with Mai and the others so you could get a good look at the hotel. Did anything unusual stand out to you?"

"It's hard to say. There's so much life and activity going on here, picking out a spirit would be like picking out an out of tune violin in an orchestra. This floor we are on does seem to feel a bit differently than the rest, but that may be because of our use of it."

"Thanks. Please let me know if you sense anything else. You're excused."

"Am I excused?" I asked mid yawn.

He actually smiled at me. "I take it you have it covered, Lin?"

"Yeah."

Then Naru did something just a bit unexpected: he twined his hand in mine without needing to be asked to and walked with me out into the empty hall. He didn't say anything, even going as far as to walk me to my room.

"This seems unwarranted," I said. "Why're you being so sweet?"

He gave me a droll stare. "I do something sweet and you get suspicious?"

"Yeah. Last time you were unnaturally romantic your brother had taken over your body."

He sighed. "My mother told me to. Demanded it, actually. She…" he hesitated in front of my door. As I waited for him to finish his sentence, I slid the card key through the door handle.

"She what?"

He did an eye twitch—what he did whenever the urge to avoid my eyes out of nerves hit him and he fought back. Naru, as his self-appointed rule, did not look nervous. Ever. Thus the twitch as he forced himself to not look so.

"She just really likes you. She doesn't want me to screw it up and make you leave."

He said this softly, almost under his breath, but it didn't stop the mix of forced disbelief and actual apprehension tingeing his words. I couldn't help but smile as the sound coaxed my affection. More and more often he confided in me, trusted me with a side no one else saw.

"You need to stop doing that."

He flinched. "What?"

"Showing me your insecure side. It makes me love you too much."

The apprehension tightening his eyes softened and the corner of his mouth rose. "And what's so bad about that?"

"Well, you see," I drew closer to him and lowered my own voice to the same confidential volume. "I have a max container for love and affection. When it gets too much and starts overflowing, I might drag you into a closet, kiss you senseless, and maybe start stripping."

The stunned stare he gave me, along with the ultra fine stillness that came over him, made me absolutely explode with laughter.

He grimaced. "People are trying to sleep."

I made to respond, but I couldn't stop laughing. It was just too much. Instead I made due with pulling his head inside my room and kissing him soundly. At first he was stiff, being made to stand in an awkward position. But then he shifted over the doorway and melted against me, as though he were the seduced maiden and I the irresistible seducer. His weight pushed me to the wall.

But it seemed just as soon as he started, he pulled back.

"Good night, Mai." He smirked. "I'll do my best not to make you love me too much. At least…until the honeymoon."

My face went hot. Fire on the sun hot. "Oh, please, like you could be seductive. I dare you not to use Google. Now go away before one of your minions hears you and starts to think you might be human."

He left a chaste peck on my cheek and left.

I closed the door behind me chuckling, so it wasn't until I had pulled out my bag and started changing into Pj's that I remembered the apparition that had appeared on the camera to my room. I took a closer look at the bottom of my bed, but the comforter was one of those ultra fluffy stiff fabric types that rarely got wrinkled, so I couldn't tell if anyone solid had sat there. When I glanced at the camera, my shirt half off, I froze.

"Damn it!" Poor Lin. I'd already taken off my pants and slipped into my pajama pants, and I was wearing a big T-shirt so it wasn't like he saw anything, but still!

Ugh. Whatever. I took off my bra without taking off my shirt and slumped into bed. The moment my head hit those ultra fluffy, one million thread pillows, I was out.


	5. Cheating and Coffee

**A second update for the day because I stand triumphant after giving my cat a buzz cut (try to run and hide now fleas, that cat is naked!), and because I have secretly finished the story...What can I say? I write like a maniac under pressure. Always wrote novels during finals week when I was in college. Weird how that works.**

Chapter 4

I dreamed. But this time there was no Gene to greet me or point the way. Thus, I found myself drifting aimlessly, flashes of my own subconscious meanderings flickering in now and then. My brain caught onto one and pulled me into it, out of the realm of the foxfires and into something familiar.

Naru was there, dressed as he usually was. But the moment the scene cleared, my heart turned to a strange, burning block of ice.

He had that special, tender thing of a smile that he only ever showed to me. Except I wasn't the one in his arms. Masako was.

A door clicked shut behind me and the two of them separated.

"Go away," said Masako. "No one asked you."

I gaped like a fish. Seeing that smile—that look—directed at her was worse than any kiss. No, Naru could confess his deep dark secrets less intimacy than that simple look. I felt I couldn't breathe. I thought I had to be dying.

Dying, desperate, horrified, I looked to Naru for comfort, anything. "Naru, why did you…what's going on?"

"I can't marry you unless you let me be with her," he said.

"That isn't how marriage works…" Out of all the times for my fiery temper to fail me. I had never felt less angry in my life. I didn't have the strength to spare. All of it had been lost in the gaping wound where my heart had been.

"Just get lost, Mai. I'm sick of having to watch you prance around with Naru with that ring on. Do you have any idea how much that made me suffer?"

Even as Masako said it, Naru was reeling her back into his arms, tender smile back. Twice in a few minutes. For me that smile came as a brief flash, never for too long, as it left him too vulnerable in the open.

I stumbled back. Takigawa. John. Ayako. Anyone. Please, someone hold me together, tell me this is all some big mistake.

But no mistake could make this happen. Naru would never act this out, never could.

Gasping, the world blurring about me, unable to see straight, I stumbled out into the hotel hallway, croaking out the names of my friends, anyone. I thought of Naru's mother and wept. I couldn't…I couldn't go through with this. I wouldn't be able to have her—no mother, no father, no little Naru babies…

That last thought sent me to my knees. But instead of hitting the floor, my shoulders hit somebody's hands. The next blink and I was hanging limply in their arms, drained of all ability to move as the mortal pain throbbed over my body, making my eyes melt from my skull in tears and my breath too quick to catch.

Somehow, my face rose up. Somehow, I could see through the blur.

A woman held me, wearing a simple white polo uniform with black slacks. She had dark hair that hugged her sharp cheekbones and framed the narrow, despairing eyes.

"You never had a chance," she whispered.

I woke with a gasping sob. For a full minute I stared at the darkness, struggling to catch my breath, startled at how I could have slept so long while sobbing so hard. The agony was still sharp in my chest.

A knock came at the door.

"Mai? You okay?"

Ayako. Oh God, please let that have been a dream.

When I opened the door, light from the hallway poured into my room, shining a bit of the nightmare away.

Ayako's eyes widened. "Dear, what's wrong?"

I took in a shuddering breath and covered my eyes. "A nightmare. A…really bad nightmare."

"What of? Do you think it has to do with the case?"

In response I could only sniff. I wanted to go back into my room and tear open the light-blocking curtains and take a long shower. No, scratch that, I wanted Naru. I wanted him now.

I allowed Ayako to give me a tight hug before stumbling towards base, where the smell of early coffee tickled what little of my nose hadn't been overrun by my tears. I opened the door to a sunlit room, peopled by John and my Naru.

John stood at my appearance, expression alarmed, but I went straight to Naru, who hadn't even looked to the door when it had open and had his eyes on the screen. I nearly bowled into his elbows as I threw myself at his waist.

"Mai?"

"Do you love me? Only me?"

I didn't care if John could hear. I didn't care if I sounded like an idiot. At that moment the answer to that question was all I needed.

"You're being ridiculous. If this is about a nightmare you need to separate yourself—"

"Please. Please, Naru, please."

I held to him so tight my arms shook.

A long moment passed as Naru fought with his aversion to public signs of affection. But then I felt one of his warm hands on the back of my head and his breath across my ear as he bent over me.

"I love only you," he said ever so quietly.

"No one else?"

"No one else." His hand then moved down to rub my back in an awkward attempt to comfort me. Then a little louder, "The fact you could ever be worried about that is insulting, actually."

I said nothing. Just tried to breathe in as much of his scent and presence as possible. It was just a dream. Just a really bad dream. But it had felt so real.

Naru managed to pry me off of his waist when Ayako came in, though neither she nor John laughed. She did smile a bit, however, and that was enough to set Naru off in a cold blizzard to any of my attempts to be coddled. I had gotten what I needed, though, and didn't push him. I made him some tea in an attempt to thaw him and left it at that.

"So, you had a dream?" John offered me a coffee with lots of cream and drizzled with chocolate. Its warmth scared away whatever darkness lingered from my nightmare and I smiled.

"More like a nightmare, really. I don't know if it has anything to do with the case, though I did see that lady at the end. She told me that I never stood a chance."

"Never stood a chance doing what?" asked Ayako.

I heated up and stared down at my coffee. "Like I said. I don't know if it has anything to do with the case. I mean, I can have normal dreams, right?"

"With how deeply that affected you, I find that unlikely," said John solemnly, frown concerned. "Are you going to be alright? Is there anything I can do?"

"I'll be fine. I'm sorry for embarrassing you like that."

"Not at all. I hope you like the coffee. I recall you saying something about the cream and fudge syrup."

"It's my favorite. It's perfect. Perfect beginning for a morning after a nightmare. You're the best."

The little frown softened and his expression warmed. He looked like he was about to say something else, but Ayako interrupted him.

"So tell us the dream."

I bit my lip. "Uh…"

"Come on, it can't be that embarrassing. What, did you sleep with someone?"

Both John and I choked mid-sip of our coffee, and let me tell you, hot caffeinated beverage down the wrong tube is about as painful as it gets.

"No!" I choked once I had finally gotten my airway clear. "No way, it's just…kind of emotionally sensitive…"

Ayako's eyes darted over my face a bit. Then she glanced at Naru, who was still stoically zooming away through last night's recordings. She frowned.

"You didn't dream that Naru was cheating on you, did you? I mean, you weren't exactly quiet when you more or less threw yourself in his lap."

Yay Ayako. You get the award for blunt approaches and no sense for 'back off, I don't want to talk about it.' Usually Naru is the one to get that, but you were just feeling like an extra achiever this week, huh?

I sighed across my yummy hot goodness and focused on the feel of the sun on my back rather than the coiling self-consciousness in my gut. "More or less…"

Ayako snorted; one of her favorite responses to most things.

"Like he could ever cheat on you. I don't know if you've noticed, Mai, but not only is he cold as an iceberg and emotionally challenged to boot, but you've got him wrapped around your finger."

Both John and I stared at her. Just how did Naru's bossing and usual teasing treatment of me translate to 'wrapped around my finger'?

Naru must have been thinking the same thing, as I heard a rather loud click from his corner.

"I thought you were going to set up wards first thing in the morning. Seeing as I expected them last night…"

"Augh! Fine, you slave driver. You just don't like me talking about your love life while you're in the room."

"I don't want you talking about my personal life at all. Last I checked, it was called 'personal' for a reason."

"Well no wonder Mai had a nightmare about you cheating on her then. If you're afraid to show others how much you love her, what's to say some woman isn't going to make a move on you, eh? Maybe you want it that way."

"Ayako!" I cried, now ashamed for a whole other reason. "That's not the case at all and you know it!"

"Not really," she said, huffing a bit and standing. "But right. Wards it is."

We watched her go, cringing when she shut the door and looking to Naru for a reaction. But he just went on scanning through video clips as though nothing had happened.

"Jeeze, what's her problem?" I asked.

"She does seem a bit more…irritable than usual," said John.

Just then Takigawa walked in, expression unusually withdrawn. His hair was mussed as though he had ran his hands through it one too many times and hadn't bothered to look into the mirror since.

"Naru…I, um…I gotta quit on this one, if that's all right."

The chair squeaked as Naru lean back to look at him.

"We are very understaffed. Is there anything I can do to convince you otherwise?"

"Yeah, Monk, what's up? Did you see something last night?" I asked.

"Are you ill?" asked John. "I got you coffee."

"Nah, I'm…" he hesitated. "I guess you could say I'm not feeling too hot. Though I'll take that coffee. Thanks a ton, John."

"Don't mention it."

He came across the room to receive the coffee, which he proceeded to breathe in deeply before taking a sip. I looked at him closely, concerned. He did seem a bit pale.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"It's nothing, Mai, I'd just…would really rather sit this one out."

Naru twisted about in his chair, his usual moody expression dipping down to none too pleased.

"Does this have anything to do with Ms. Matsusaki, perchance?"

To my chagrin, Takigawa instantly looked guilty, though he did his best to cover it up with another solemn sip of his coffee.

"It's nothing that concerns you."

"It concerns me if I'm to lose important help over it. Whatever your quarrel may be with her, this is work, not a social lounge, and I had expected a professional like you to be able to keep the two separated."

John and I cringed, ever the spectators to the morning Naru show.

Takigawa lowered his coffee and sent Naru a cool glare from beneath lowered eyebrows. After a few tense seconds, he sighed and broke eye contact.

"Nevermind, then. But if I'm not needed I'd prefer to be somewhere other than here."

"Fine," said Naru. "I'll talk to the manager about seeing if you could use the other accommodations here at the hotel. There should be a pool and a gym on the ground floor. Please stay in the building, at least."

"Thanks."

"You're welcome."

Takigawa thanked John again for the coffee, got his assignment from Naru to check out my room along with a janitorial closet at the end of the hallway (apparently they had been the rooms to experience temperature drops the night before), and left.

John and I sipped in quiet as Naru scanned away. At some point, John pulled out some apple turnovers for us, which we enjoyed together. The sweetness helped coax a general outline of the dream I had before. Perhaps it was because John was trained as a priest that made it easier to talk about sensitive subjects to him. By the time I'd finished, I felt as though a poison had been extracted from my system and it was easier to breathe.

"And since your room was one of the ones that experienced a temperature drop the night before," said John. "It's not too far of a leap to say this dream meant something."

"Not to mention how real it was," I shuddered. "Usually I can sort of tell which ones are visions and which aren't because of Gene. But all I have now is that…plain. That general feeling…and I think I kept popping in and out of it last night, but, without him…I never realized just how much I depended on him." I wilted at the thought. I missed him. I missed him a lot. Sometimes I forgot that he had been dead all along, and all I had done was help him move on. But the hole in which he had filled not only gaped wide and cold, but was now proving as a sort of pothole in the road that sent me weaving off course.

We were quiet for a bit, in which only the clicking of Naru's mouse could be heard. I finished my apple turnover and went to the corner to the electric teapot to warm up some water for the tea I knew Naru was dying to ask for. I should figure out some sort of reward for him later for at least waiting for me to wake up before asking. He even managed a weak smile as I set down an extra large mug of earl grey next to his hand before pulling up a chair besides him to get to work on those phone calls.

On seeing the hundreds of names along with their notes, I groaned. It was going to be a long day.


	6. Possessive

**Because when the world is in chaos, we need stories more than ever.**

Chapter 5

Masako did rounds with Ayako throughout the day, taking a break around lunch to get some air outside of the hotel and refresh her memory of how it felt outside of the expensive hubbub. Takigawa and John talked to security personnel and some of the workers about the eighteenth floor, and Lin caught up on sleep from his graveyard shift at the monitors.

And Naru and I made phone calls. Or rather, I did all the talking and he took notes—occasionally slipping over written questions for me to ask when he saw fit to.

Around noon, while everyone was out getting food, I put the phone down from my sweaty ear and laid my head down on the table to give my aching back a break. I listened to the scratching of Naru's pencil till he finished his sentence and moved his hand to scratch my back idly.

"Is that another thing you're mother told you to do?" I asked, smiling.

"I do have some natural inclinations." His hand pulled back.

"Don't stop! That felt nice."

I could feel his amusement as he returned to running his fingers up and down my back. I allowed myself a little noise of pleasure.

"You hungry?" he asked.

"Are you offering?"

"I do like feeding you. I think it's a male thing: the want to provide."

"Way to make it weird. Provide away, what we doing?"

"Well, there are various restaurants here, though I wouldn't recommend them, since they're not only insanely expensive but also slow. Cuisine takes time."

"Better not that, then. Time is calories. Where'd you get those sandwiches from last night?"

Just then the door to base opened and Ayako appeared, a hand on the edge of the door.

"Hey, Mai, I bought some sushi from a place down the street. Would you come have some with me? Masako's still off on her little venture."

"Sure. Is there enough for Naru?"

She looked at Naru hesitantly, as though sizing him up. I recognized her look instantly. She had something to talk about.

Naru must have gathered the same thing, as he said, "Don't mind me. I'll call up room service for Lin and I, he should be getting up. Don't want to deprive Mai of binging on sushi."

"Don't make me sound like a glutton."

"I've seen you eat sushi."

I pushed at his head playfully and followed Ayako out into the corridor. She made small talk about the manner of some of the staff here ("Naru would fit right in. All of them snobby know-it-alls that serve God himself."), as she led me into her room, which was an exact mirror copy of mine. We sat at the cushy sitting area and set out our sushi on the coffee table. At the sight, my mouth instantly began to water. They looked high end, or at least high quality. I was going to enjoy this.

"So, what did you want to talk about?" I picked up a colorful roll of green avocado and salmon with fish eggs and popped it into my mouth.

"What, I can't invite you to lunch without needing to drill you on something?" At my dry look, she sighed and broke apart her chopsticks. "Takigawa snuck into my bed naked last night."

I nearly choked, but somehow managed to swallow. "Eh?"

"Right? It isn't like he's ever made any sign to—"

"How'd he get your key card?"

"I don't know! That's the thing, my key card was right where I left it! Maybe I didn't close the door all the way, but he had the gall to act surprised and act like I was the one that had crawled into _his_ bed, but before that when I woke him up, he just started laughing and trying to hug me as though we were married or something, it was the creepiest thing ever!" She dropped her chopsticks, sushi forgotten, and face flushed. "Mai, has he ever said anything to you?"

"About what?"

"About…about wanting me, or even liking me? Has he ever even acted like it?"

"I don't know! I mean, you two fight like an old married couple and tease each other a lot—"

"I'm twenty six years old, Mai, I swear he starts it! Like I'd—" she seemed to struggle a bit for words, her cheeks still red as a noon day sun, though her mouth twitching as though dying to laugh. "Only twelve year old boys mock girls they like. He's almost thirty, I doubt he'd…"

She quieted, eyes to her fingers. Then, instead of continuing her thought, she picked her chopsticks back up and plucked out a piece of sashimi to pull into her mouth.

I waited, unable to think of anything to say. What did you say to that?

She swallowed. "Mai…you don't think he was possessed, do you? I mean, he's an immature retard, but even he wouldn't sneak into someone's bed naked. And he kept saying he didn't remember a thing and has no clue how he got there."

I didn't miss the faint sad note beneath her casual question. The heat had died a bit from her cheeks.

"I mean, like I said, he's nearly thirty. If he liked someone he'll ask them out or even flirt like a normal human being. He even said I was the last person he'd want to sleep with anyways, and even seemed to think I was the one that had somehow dragged him in there—like I could do that. The slobs got to have at least fifty pounds on me."

"Oh, Ayako…" I wanted to hug her. I had never thought…after all this time…

"Should we tell Naru? Maybe have John see him? Though whatever did possess him left the moment he woke up."

I dropped my chopsticks and came around the table to throw my arms around her shoulders. She flinched, but didn't push me off. After a moment she gave a little sniff.

"Don't tell anyone?" she said in a little voice I'd never heard from her before.

She didn't have to say about what. "I promise. If we tell Naru, he'll only get the facts, though are you sure he didn't have anything to drink last night? The bar here is suppose to be rather spectacular."

"Are you kidding? Don't you remember how tired we all were last night? Like he'd have the energy to drink himself into oblivion just to come back up to molest me."

"Oh crud, did he—"

"No no, I'm just kidding, calm down." She gave another sniff and finally pushed me off. "But I did get this sushi for you. We haven't done anything to celebrate your engagement yet! Not to mention you haven't even told me how it happened. I can't even imagine how that narcissist could ever propose. Did he just command it of you?"

I was more than happy to give her the distraction from her own feelings by offering my own. When I told her how I had just found the engagement ring in my pocket and how he had just told me, cut and dry, that it was meant to be worn and I was being silly, she cracked up.

"Figures!" she crowed. "Completely figures that you'd be the one to propose—and it was in some spur of the moment panic when you thought you'd lose him. What a coward. He probably wanted you so bad he didn't know what to do with himself."

I flushed and smiled. "You really think he likes me that much?"

"Don't you know? Don't tell me he doesn't show it, or I'm going over and punching out his lights."

"No, no, he makes sure I know. I won't give you details, but…yeah."

"Oh, look at that goofy smile! You're so cute, Mai-chan, I just want to squeeze you till your head pops!"

And she proceeded to do just that, rubbing her cheek on my head until I begged to be released and returned to the safety of the other side of the coffee table.

"So, get anything from calling people?"

I finished chewing my sushi before answering. "Not really. Half of them wouldn't even answer. Some demanded to know how I got their number, some started ranting to me about their failing marriages or whatever, and the ones that actually did answer my questions just gave me what we already know: rattling, electricity going out, knocking sounds, doors opening and closing, etc. One said she came back into her room and found all her furniture rearranged all crazily—like beds against windows, chairs in the bathroom, all that. But then she started going on about how loose the maids were here and I sort of cut it off at that point."

"Pfft. Rich people and their soap opera lives."

"Uh, Ayako, you're rich."

"But not high profile rich, mind you. We never stayed in this place, for one, and my parents didn't even own that big of a house. It just attracts thieves and losers if you flaunt your wealth."

"Sure. Whatever you say."

We eventually decided not to tell Naru of the incident unless something else like it happened, just on the off chance that it wasn't paranormal. Naru was, after all, as delicate as a fingerless blind man on a glass figurine when it came to matters of someone else's romance, and sometimes even his own.

When we got back to base, John was there with a front desk security guard (on a different division than the guys working with us back in the camera room), who had the worn out look of a guy too young to feel that old in a dead end job. He couldn't even be thirty yet and there were circles under his eyes.

"Just in time," said John. "This fellow has agreed to tell us about a certain experience of his."

The guy ('Jim' if his name tag was correct), glanced at us and gave us a tired smile of greeting.

"It'll be like telling ghost stories," he said.

I took a seat on the sofa across from his as he told his story. He had seen the same girl we had on the security camera several times, wandering the hallways and then vanishing. He and a few other nighttime security guards say she is Veronica, a woman from southern Russia who had taken up a job here. She apparently was found dead at home, the cause unknown but suicide suspected as she took medication for a depression disorder. Her body had been taken home by her family to bury, but the security guards thought her spirit remained here.

"They say she fell in love with a patron here," said Jim. "But they also say she just doesn't know she's dead yet so she's going to work every day like she did before. None of us knew her, but someone on the cleaning staff might. Veronica Rachmoninov."

"Did she happen to know the man from the detergent suicide incident?" asked Naru, who had his trusted notebook in hand and pen scribbling.

Jim shrugged. "The guy who committed suicide back in '08? Beats me, I didn't work here then. Besides, any information the hotel had on him was given out to the police, ain't it?"

Naru stopped writing and tapped the tip of his pen on the paper, a crease between his eyebrows.

"The 'ghostly figures' you wrote down in the reports. Did those just consist of what you thought to be Veronica?"

"Can't say. Awfully blurry, some are. Lots of distant stuff. You know, the kind of stuff you see on all those ghost hunting TV shows…" he paused, a look of comprehension dawning on his face. "Hey, you guys ain't one of those, are you?"

"Of course not," said Naru. "As I said before, the hotel hired us to investigate the security quality of the building. Thank you for your time."

Jim didn't look entirely convinced, though when I opened the door for him, the manager who liked to pop his eyes all the time (because it would kill him to have someone put up a camera in his hallway), was waiting out there to receive him.

With that, I closed the door, and Ayako asked the question hanging above all of us.

"Who's this guy who committed suicide? You didn't tell us anyone died here."

"I figured you would have seen it in the news," Naru clicked his pen and closed the notebook. "Name not disclosed, age 47, gassed himself using cleaning chemicals in the hotel bathroom. Suicide by hydrogen sulfide in room (xx). I figured if he popped up somewhere we'd know. What I'm really wondering is why some employee who didn't even die on site would be wandering around, if indeed the apparitions in these photos and our tapes are her. I'm finding it difficult to get anything on her. The manager seems to have little memory for his underlings."

"I can ask around about her," said John.

"I can too!" And get out of this stinking room and actually get some exploring done.

"You just want to get out of your current job. You still have some people to call, you can ask them."

I groaned.

Naru picked up the chair and returned it to the desk, where he click on the microphone and pushed down the transmitter button to all stations.

"Alright, people, keep an ear open for anyone by the name of Veronica Rachmoninov. She was a maid here."

Takigawa, Masako, and various other voices which I supposed was the security guards we had been given to work with us, all verified they had heard and clicked off.

"Where's Lin?" I asked.

"Shower. Now, if you would all go back to work, that would be much appreciated. Ms. Matsuzaki…"

Ayako gave a loud, exasperated sigh. "Yeah yeah, I know. I've finished the charms, I just wanted to eat first. I'll be back."

Ayako left. John peeled open the sandwich he had brought and took his first bite.

"So, anything from the calls?" he asked.

I told him much the same as what I told Ayako and slumped into my chair. What was left of the list wasn't even that substantial. Only three more. But then there were all the ones who didn't answer.

"I'll look up the names of her relatives. Just finish those three and hopefully I'll have their contact information by then."

I echoed Ayako's sigh. "If all we were going to do was call, why didn't we just stay back at the office?"

Naru opened his mouth. I heard the breath to begin his response.

But his words were cut off with the rest of sound. It was like my head had been plunged into a tank of water, and all I could hear was my own heartbeat and the swoosh of my breath. He stopped talking to focus on his research.

Then he was beneath me, straddled between my legs on a bed, his throat in my hands. Thin lines of fire smarted along my back.

I snapped my hands away, sick, cold, unable to shake off the feel of the tendons of his neck beneath my palms.

"Wha…what am I…" My hands—no, they couldn't be mine, as I could never—Naru was coughing, purple faced, blue lipped (people's lips really did turn blue from lack of oxygen?), gasping for breath beneath me. I scampered, just to tumble head first off the bed when the sheets snagged around my bare legs. I went skull first into somebody's knees. My teeth cut into my lip on their shoes.

I heard John's voice as some background noise to the horrible sounds Naru was making as he pulled me to my feet, but my legs wouldn't work. I didn't care that I was in weird booty shorts—no, they were my pajama bottoms, lopped off short. When had that happened? How did I get here?

"Naru?" I was crying. When had I started crying. "Naru, are you okay? Are you okay? Please say something, are you okay?"

"Give me a moment," he croaked, coughing some more and rolling onto his hands and knees. He was dressed in his usual black T-shirt and pants, but what had happened to his jacket? What happened to—the phone calls—the security officer.

John stepped round to crouch in front of me. He had a crucifix in one hand and his little bottle of holy water in the other hand. Suddenly it made sense.

"Mai, you're bleeding,"

And I could feel it. Blood was dripping down from my split lip. But I didn't care.

Because as soon as I saw John's holy water and connected the burns on my back to the vague shape of a cross, I grew furious. More furious than I had ever been in my life to the point I must have been on fire. I could have nuked Japan.

Still pouring tears down my face, the fury welled up out of my mouth into a roar.

"THAT BITCH POSSESSED ME?!"

And to do that to MY Naru? She would have made me kill him with my own hands if John hadn't come in and—

John had fallen flat on his butt at my explosion, and when I then screamed in wordless fury he actually scrabbled back, terrified. Naru just looked at me from under his arm like the president had walked in naked.

I jumped to my feet. "Give me your damn cross, I'm going to freaking _crucify her!"_

"Mai—"

"Lin! Where the hell are you Lin! You better get your ass down here and call those shiki—forget it, I'm hunting her down myself! Where's her grave? I'll dig up her whole damn body and dump her on the bottom of the—"

I choked. Somehow, a combination of tears and blood had wormed their way down my throat. The spray of blood across the white sheets must have been the last straw for John, for he flew at me and wrapped my arms about me like I was a lunatic patient in an asylum.

"Mai, listen to me—"

"Let go! She tried to kill him—she tried to make _me_ kill him!"

"Look, let's think about this rationally, you're going a bit overboard—"

"I'm fine, Mai." And Naru was, sitting up in bed and rubbing his throat. But I could see bruises around his mouth and his eyes had gone bloodshot. Sometimes, in strangulation, the veins in the whites of the eyes could burst for want of air.

And having your best friend holding you like a straight jacket because he thinks you've gone completely nutters can have an effect in calming you down fast.

But once the anger simmered down enough to allow normal thought process, the trauma and shock got front seat and John had an awkward time not falling over me as I collapsed on the floor.

"One minute I'm complaining about making phone calls and the next I'm strangling my boy..."

"Good, you're doing good—"

I yanked out my arms and shoved John away. "Stop talking to me like I'm some psychopath without their drugs, John. I'm an adult, I can manage myself just fine."

He stuttered out apologies and more or less shrunk into a corner of the room. He stuffed his crucifix and holy water away as though it might set me off again and watched us with a blank, pale, scared face.

Which let me focus on Naru, who was still rubbing his neck and blinking at me with his red stained eyes.

Which just got me crying again.


	7. A Different Kind of Fear

**Ding ding ding! John's greatest fear is needles. This is established in 'Plain,' the second book of this little series of mine. Here's one chapter, served with a side of fries.**

Chapter 6

Since you probably get the essential idea that I was a traumatized emotional wreck at this point, I'll fast forward to after I got properly dressed out of my new unwanted booty shorts (they were more like panty covers at that point, butt cheek hanging out and all, poor John), got my lip to stop bleeding, and returned to base. I was less than thrilled to find curtains closed, the lights on, and the fancy ornate wall cloak pointing out 9:45.

The whole team sat at the couches chatting to one another. I couldn't look at Masako. I didn't want to know what she thought when she looked at Naru and knew the bruises around his neck and his bloodshot eyes were because of me.

Trying to be as inconspicuous as possible, I edged the wall like a mouse and made my way to Naru's side at his laptop.

"I can't believe your hands are that strong," he said conversationally.

"They aren't," I said. I went to say 'that was all her,' but I didn't really feel like talking. What I felt like was going home and curling up in my bed forever. Or murdering someone that was already dead. Seriously, I didn't care what stupid little vendetta she had to stop her from crossing over, possessing me to strangle my fiancé? So not fly. That's murdering material right there.

"Are you sure Mai should be allowed so close to him?"

I froze. Masako. Oh Masako Masako, why'd you have to say something that's probably right?

"We're at base. Naru had the kakai barrier set up, remember?" said Takigawa with an undertone of warning. John had probably told him the horrors of an erupting Mount Mai.

"I'm not sure I'm confident in _her_ ability to set up such a barrier."

Ayako let out a noise of frustration. "Don't you go starting with that attitude, I saved you're sorry ass before, remember?"

"Three years ago. Have you been useful since then?"

"Of course I have! You've just been too busy being the star to come to cases anymore."

"Oh sad, I have a job. I'd think being a doctor would keep one more busy, or are you inept there too?"

"Okay, what is your problem?" asked Takigawa, which was saying something as the men generally headed for the hills whenever anything like a fight picked up between the women.

"All I said was that I don't like the idea of letting Mai be around Naru after almost strangling him to death. Sounds perfectly reasonable to me—"

I stood up. "Don't bother, I'm leaving."

Takigawa stood up from the couch at the same time as John. "No! It's not safe—"

"That's right." Some of the fury from the hour before leaked back into my tone. "It's not safe. I'm wearing John's crucifix, so unless this chick has a messed up medium formula like the hospital ghost, I think I'm good. Good night."

"Mai!"

"Shut it, Monk, I don't want to hear it."

It wasn't till I was half way to my room that I realized why I felt hurt. Naru hadn't bothered to stop me. He hadn't even looked up from his computer. Did that mean he held it against me…? Was he perhaps…afraid of me?

The door to my luxurious room snapped closed behind me, and the empty space gaped wide. I hugged myself tighter and tighter until every joint in my arms and hands popped.

Hell, I was afraid of me.

I couldn't see how I could sleep, so I dug out my extra large T-shirt from the dirty laundry (stupid ghost had to ruin my favorite pajama pants—why?), some clean underwear, and left them on the counter for when I had finished drowning myself in a hot shower.

The Peninsula's bathrooms were legit. The shower was this white, glass and brass gleaming thing with two showerheads spraying towards each other, so you got double the power. If there was ever the shower that could drown a person, this was the one. I almost gleefully tried to see how long I could keep my face up towards the spray.

A long time passed where I did some crying and a good deal of staring into space, numb, besides the occasional ferocious need to cling to Naru and never let go, but then that led back to how the tendons of his neck had felt strained against my cramped fingers. I could even remember his fluttering heartbeat against my skin.

Face up. Time for another drowning go. Bothering with making hydrogen sulfide to commit suicide seemed such a waste. The old guy should have just drowned himself. Stupid survival instincts.

Eventually I figured I was done with my suicide attempts and feeling sorry for myself (never-ending hot water, God really did exist), I got out, slathered myself with some of that awesome complimentary, five star spa lotion, blow dried my hair (just to kill time and to make me even more sleepy), and left. I managed to read a turquoise 1:20am on the fancy digital alarm clock before the light from the bathroom revealed that my bed was occupied.

First, I took the moment to drop my head back and 'ugh.'

"Please let this not be more ghost crap so soon."

Though I remembered closing my door. So unless Naru, who had the master key, had returned and somehow thought a good way of getting back at me/comforting me/seducing me ahead of time was to sneak into my room and curl up in bed, he had another thing coming.

Grabbing one of the heavenly pillows I had thrown around in a fit of boredom, I made my way to the side of the bed and peered down into the fluff of pillows. I saw blond. Then freckles.

"…John?"

He didn't move. If it weren't for his steady breathing, I would have thought him dead, but he was just asleep.

Putting down my weapon of mass destruction, I crawled onto the bed to shake his shoulder. "John, what are you doing here?"

John gave a sleepy, non-ghosty-possession sounding grunt and rolled back, resting an arm on his head. For a second he just blinked blearily at me. Then he gave a little sigh.

"Oh…this dream again." And before I could tell him 'what the fluff,' the arm on his forehead yanked on one of the arms I had been using to support me with surprising strength. Next thing I knew I had a face full of John's chest and his arms tight around me. I gave a little cry of protest, but a mouth full of John chest can be…holy crap, he wasn't wearing a shirt. Good Lord, were those pecs? Like…pec pecs? Not a body builder, but still-

"I'll get up for work in a minute," he grumbled.

I squirmed enough to release my face just to get it nuzzled by said priest. Whatever I meant to say turned into a squished squeak as my bare legs realized that John's were hairy, and that that squishy thing was—

"OH MY GOD!"

John didn't have a choice. I flew the coop. Possession was one thing, failing to commit suicide by drowning in the shower was another thing, celibate-sworn naked John Brown in my bed was entirely another.

John sat up to look expectantly surprised at my outburst. Then, he looked down at himself, now only graciously covered by a sheet, and then back up at me. And the hotel room.

The blood drained so quickly from his face he actually wobbled, as though ready to faint.

"Excuse me." He turned from me, slung his legs over the side, then registered he was naked.

Oh no, oh no, I could see his back, his butt—

I slapped my hands over my eyes. Hard. It hurt.

"Wh-wh-what are you doing in here?"

"Mai, I swear to the Lord Himself, I don't have a clue—I am so sorry, I just—Oh God Almighty."

I turned and let my eyes down long enough to find one of those fluffy robes that were also complimentary to the room and flung it behind me, hoping it got near enough.

It must have, for I heard a quiet, "Thanks."

Then the only thing that could have made this situation worse occurred.

A knock came at the door.

I moved to it mechanically, half planning to squeeze out and book it once I shook off whoever it was.

Naru stood in the doorway in his usual black shirt and slacks, eyes still bloodshot, serious as ever and not looking sleepy at all—because did he ever?

"You're camera stopped working," he said. "I need to check it."

"Uh, now might not be the time—"

That must have put off all his triggers, for he pushed past me and into the room. I launched towards one of his arms, just realizing it might make me look even more guilty, but the damage had already been done.

Naru stared at the half covered John, who rushed to tie up the robe.

"Naru," started John weakly. "I can explain."

Naru was very still in my grip. I thought I could hear my world starting to crash.

"This isn't what it looks like, Naru!" I squeaked, trying to control the panic running away with my voice.

Carefully, but with a strength that denied resistance, Naru pried my fingers from his arm and stepped back into the hallway. I couldn't make out what he was thinking, his expression had frozen in place. I stumbled after him, forgetting all I wore were panties and an extra large T-shirt. I had never been one for flaunting too much skin.

"Naru!"

"Leave me alone."

"No! You're misunderstanding! I would never—John doesn't even remember how he got in there—Ayako and Takigawa—"

" _I said leave me alone!"_

That worked as effectively on me as throwing a cement wall in my path. Naru didn't yell at me. His voice might rise a little when he was worried or angered, but it never reached the point of a shout. He thought himself above that, and when you worked as logically as he did, shouting didn't get you anywhere. And when we were fighting? That was funny right there. Like he'd ever have to yell at me to put me in my place. I was the one who yelled.

Thus, in my injured shock, I couldn't stop him from vanishing into his room and locking the door, forgetting entirely about his duty to watch the monitors at base.

My knees buckled.

"Mai?"

John was at my side in an instant, his hands fluttering over my shoulders before finally deciding to take them gingerly, comforting.

"Mai, I am so sorry, I'll explain to him, I'll make this all right again, you have my word."

I sniffed. Hard. "John?" His name was a mewl.

"Yes?"

I tipped my head back onto my shoulders and sobbed so hard it was almost a wail.


	8. A Down, Dark Place

**And our guest reviewer Beth got our quote question! It's from Okami-san and her Seven Companions. Love that anime.**

 **Jeeze, at this rate you guys will have all the chapters. x.x I hope other readers have time to find this story before it's complete, buuutt...oh well. Whatever. ^.^ It's just funsies. FUNSIES!**

 **And I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this. This story is an approach on my part to a different kind of horror-social horror. If you've noticed, in my other stories I took on different types of horror: psychological, visceral, and shocking horror. I'm trying to test around a bit, so I hope you guys are okay with it.**

Chapter 7

Third and last day on the case. After tonight, we'd be under contract to leave first thing in the morning. Our clients would be expecting an answer then.

I didn't know how far we were to the answer. It was noon and I was still huddled into a corner of my room.

Ayako had stopped by to give me food, along with Takigawa who then got into a fight so ferocious with Naru I could hear his shouts through the door. John came by to promise that he'd fix it again, and Ayako told me that she was planning on telling Naru as soon as he returned from…wherever he had disappeared to after Takigawa had shouted him down. Lin came by with a cup of tea, a smile, and a calm invitation to join him at base, which I didn't give a direct answer to. I was afraid of meeting Naru in there. I was afraid of facing him and getting his rejection.

I hugged my left hand to my chest, as though he might come and try to tear off the engagement ring.

I'd never felt so afraid or in pain.

What if Naru never believed John? Or me? Or what if he believed me this one time, but would constantly suspect me of something from this day forward? Or was afraid of it? And poor John, what would happen to his priesthood? What if whoever was in charge of him learned of this incident and excommunicated him or something?

Around 12:40pm, Ayako came to visit with a Styrofoam cup of soup.

"Thought you'd like something easy to eat," she wrinkled her nose down at me. "Good crap, you're a wreck. Seriously, are you letting yourself get worked over a little thing like this? You need some sun, girl."

Once I accepted the soup, she crossed the room and opened my amazing sun-blocking blinds. I hissed at the sudden brightness.

"Come on, eat up. Then wash your face, because I'm giving you a makeover."

"Why? It's not like he cares. I'm not particularly pretty…" Like Masako. What if he…?

Ayako rolled her eyes. "Oh please, you're adorable. The fact that you don't see it just makes it more so. Now, munch munch."

I did as told, swallowing down the soup mechanically without really taking a good look at what I was eating. Then I washed my face and let Ayako have her way with me. She had brought over a makeup kit the size of a toolbox. I thought blithely of how I didn't even have a makeup box, just a thing of concealer, some mascara, and some eyeliner. Sleep appealed to me more than makeup, you see. She also styled my shoulder length hair to hug about my face, framing my small mouth and doe-like eyes. I had always thought I looked like a bug. She pulled out my two remaining outfits and wrinkled her nose at them.

"We have to take you shopping. What kind of eighteen year old girl has this kind of fashion?"

"My fashion's fine," I mumbled. And comfortable.

"Well, put on these pants and a bra. You actually got a nice pair there. I'm going to get a blouse that's more flattering."

She came back with some wispy blue thing that reminded me of curtains of rains. It hugged the waist, but the way the fabric draped made it feel loose. It was modest, as I liked it, with tiny blue bows where the sleeves split at the shoulder.

I looked alright.

"Smile, Mai, everything will be fine. It's just some misunderstanding and Naru'll get over it, trust me. If Takigawa hadn't wasted his time calling him names and told him about what happened to us, I'm sure he would come back begging for forgiveness." She frowned as I teared up. "Don't you dare cry, that make up isn't waterproof."

So I sniffed, clenched my teeth, and fought it back, because the last thing I needed was streams of mascara running down my cheeks.

"I'm going to go find the idiot. You get out of your room for a bit." She hugged me and patted my cheeks. "Really, Mai, it will be fine. You're being silly."

How was it silly to fear you were losing your chance at being with your family? Naru had been going to marry me. His parents wanted me. We were going to make a family. Have little Naru babies.

Ayako left me standing in the doorway of my bathroom. I glanced about my messy room, breathed in the silence, and figured I might as well give room service a chance to clean up. This was going to be my last night here, after all. Might as well not waste it by settling for snotty sheets and wet pillows.

I made sure my keycard was in my pocket and closed the door behind me. I had just started formulated a so-so plan of wandering to base and seeing what Lin was up to, when I noticed the door to Naru's room was cracked open.

Something like prickling, burning cold foreboding trickled over my insides.

But the sudden need and desperation to make things right—to have my Naru's arms around me once more—pushed me forward. There was a chance he was in there, there was a chance I could say the right things that he'll hear, that he'll believe.

I pushed open the door. It moved soundlessly on its five-star hinges.

The light from the hallway poured in and the automatic light flicked on.

Naru sat upright in his bed, only a sheet over his legs…

And Masako, only in her bra and panties, straddling him, her hands on his shoulders, her short hair fallen forward to hide her expression.

He saw me at the same time I saw him.

I didn't wait to ask. I didn't even wait to hear if he said anything. I just ran.

I skipped the elevator and took the stairs. Good thing I was going down, as eighteen floors was a long way to go. Somewhere half way my eyes filled with so many tears I lost sight of which floor I was on, though I figured the last floor would spit me out onto the main landing.

When I finally came to the end of the stairs, I yanked open the door and stepped—into a maintenance room. It was large, white, and long. On each side were what had to be engines of some sort hooked up to multicolored pipes that ran up into the ceiling. Green metal tanks sat beside each one of these, and a loud humming, not unlike several high RPM engines in traffic, lined the room and filled my chest.

I found I liked this place. If I ran home someone would come after me. They wouldn't even expect me here, so I'd be left in peace to lose my dignity. And maybe, a small part of me whispered, Naru will feel guilty when he hears the truth and then finds me missing. I could cry and talk as much as I wanted too and the hum of the motors would hide me.

What I found when I took out my phone sealed the deal. No signal.

Wobbling on legs that had taken me down who knows how many floors at this point, I found a corner between one of the tanks and the wall that looked spider free and crawled in till I reached the corner, where I pulled my legs to my chest and sobbed as loud as I wanted.

Sometime later—about forty minutes according to my phone—the humming vibrations of the motor reached my chest and calmed my sobs like white noise does a newborn. My heart still felt like it had been torn out and eaten by something, but at least I had worn myself out to the point of almost feeling numb. I drowsily registered that I was cold and thought about cuddling up to one of the engines and taking a nap.

The lights flicked off. The engines humming whined and slowed.

I suddenly wasn't tired at all.

No one knew I was here. No one could know I was here.

I pulled my legs in so tight my forearms felt like they might snap. Then, in a last act of desperation, I took out my phone and clicked it on, thinking that the light might prove it really was just a black out this one time out of all the times the lights went off.

It was dead.

It clacked to the floor as I snapped my hands together and made the sign of the Unmovable One.

"On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan. On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan."

A clang, followed by a hiss made me jump so hard, I bruised my rear on landing on the cement floor. I had to focus—it was just a spirit. I shouldn't let a little dark scare me. And it wasn't like…

But Gene wasn't here anymore. If I passed out, he wouldn't be there to catch me. I really was alone.

"On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan. On nōmaku sanmanda—"

My cell phone flickered, then glowed to life. The green side of the tank and the whitewashed brick wall came into view.

Something crouched just outside the globe of light.

"—basaradan kan. On nōmaku sanmanda basaradan kan."

Whatever it was hadn't moved. The space the humming of the engines had taken up gaped wide, swallowing up my tiny chants.

I had to get out. Out out out, back up the stairs, back to the sunlight.

I untwined my hands, bringing out two fingers.

"Rin, Pyo, To, Sha—"

It shuddered and moved towards me. A too pale hand reached into my bubble of light. As it reached the outermost reach of the light, a round, hanging jaw with purple lips and gums and nubs of something that could be teeth came into view. In a flare of intuition, I realized that the thing in front of me was a man. A man on all fours, with something like spittle or blood dripping from his too loose bottom lip.

"—Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai—"

Bulging, yellow eyes glinted into view, staring right into mine. His flesh sagged from around his eyes, sunken, though his grey-blue flesh still gave the appearance of a something unrotted and wholesome, but I had never seen any sick man look so. Only the dead.

"— _Zen!_ "

The face vanished and he was thrust back into the darkness.

Snatching up my phone, I fumbled out like a crazy person from my little nook and went sprinting towards the door, half blinded by terror and the uneven bouncing of my phone's light.

The stairwell opened to me, just as black as the room behind me, though I could see light from above. I went for it, taking the steps two at a time. I thought I could feel him behind me, hunched, bulging eyes, purple mouth wide—

I burst out onto the first floor.


	9. A Half-Made Peace

**DING DING DING! We got a winner!**

 **And another random guest reviewer got Yugi's favorite song: Carolina in the Pines, by Michael Murphy! It's an old folk song of my family's that I grew up with. We all sing it around the campfire when we get together (my mom's siblings and I, that is. My family is really helter skelter...)**

Chapter 8

For a whole minute I stood there, baffled by the bright sunlight and glitz about me. The marble and gold leaf décor never looked more insubstantial or welcoming.

"Ma'am?"

An elevator or baggage guy had stopped in the hall while pushing his trolley of luggage. He had the wide eyed look of someone who had just been startled.

"Don't go in there," I said.

"Uh…wait, do you need help? What's down there? Ma'am?"

But I was already in the elevator that had just opened. Some people, vacationers by the look of them, filed out as I jumped in and pushed the number eighteen, praying that whatever was down there stayed down there and didn't, by some paranormal means, shut down the elevator.

By the time the elevator dinged the eighteenth floor I hadn't managed to recover. My heart still raced and my head still spun. The doors opened and Naru moved to step in, but froze at the sight of me.

"Mai," his face snapped to that almost angry concern. "Where have you been? Everyone—"

I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms tight around his chest and letting out a wild sob.

"Mai, I swear, I promise, nothing happened between me and Ms. Hara. I was taking a nap and she just came in, I think the same ghost that effected John and Takigawa effected her—and yes, Ayako told me."

"There's something in the basement," I gasped.

He paused only for a moment. "You went into the basement?"

"It's a man, he almost had me, oh Naru, I was so scared—I was so scared. I was trapped in a corner behind a big tank thing and it got all dark-"

"Slow down, I can't understand what you're saying."

"And I thought you had gone to Masako because you thought I had slept with John or something and I thought I had lost you forever—waaaaahh, Naru, you're a bastard, it was so scary I thought I was going to die, his face was all blue and his eyeballs looked like they were about to fall out of their sockets—you're mean! I hate you! Don't leave me, waaaaaaah!"

A door opened up down the hall. "Is that Mai?"

Naru turned to say something to Monk, but I had him tight. Letting go of him didn't seem an option to me anymore. Getting a whiff of him despite my clogged nose just insured that. I didn't care if I was wailing like a baby and half melted onto the floor, I had my Naru, he'd keep me safe.

Somehow he and Monk managed to coax me into base, where Ayako pried me off him and onto a couch, where John came to my side and Lin was ready with a cup of his sedative tea that he must have made the moment he heard my voice. Good thing Naru was such a tea junkie that there'd be hot water for Lin to use without having to wait.

Masako was nowhere to be seen.

Naru sat down on the coffee table, his notepad in hand.

"I'm sorry, but I need you to calm down the best you can and tell me what you saw."

"It can wait—" started Ayako, but she was silenced with a sharp look from Naru.

And since this was my job, I managed to calm myself enough to speak slower, with some help of Lin's tea, of course. I skipped anything that had to do with Naru and just started with finding the mechanical room and what happened after the forty minutes.

Naru was still madly scribbling by the time I was done. I was grateful to his thick lashes for hiding the injured, bloody whites of his eyes.

"Alright. Let's go, Mai."

I squawked. Instantly everyone had tensed, mouths opening—

But it was the usual quiet John who beat them to the punch.

"Don't take her back there."

Though small, there was still a threat to his voice I had never had the chance to hear before.

Naru's expression was short of sharpened razors on the priest, and in that moment I suddenly knew that he hadn't forgotten finding John in my room, possession or not.

"I'm not a complete demon, Father. I was going to take her outside for sun. But since you lot seem to think you can do a better job protecting her than I can, how about you tell me why three people were possessed to break and enter other's rooms? Or perhaps who followed Mai into that room, because she was followed."

"That Veronica lady possessed us," said Monk instantly. "We all know that."

"Then why is there a man in the basement?"

"There's got to be two ghosts," said Ayako. "He could be that guy who committed suicide."

"Then why would he be interested in Mai? No one else has reported a man or anything like what happened to Mai. And why has no one reported possession until now? Or are we just extra special and get all the attention from any spirits we happen to be investigating? Or why haven't any of John's and Takigawa's exorcisms stuck? Come on, now, you were so eager to talk before."

Now he was just being belligerent.

"Obviously we don't know," said Ayako, growing just as frustrated as the others, minus Lin. "How about you enlighten us?"

"After you answer the question that will prove my theory." He looked up from beneath his eyebrows, eyes dark, cold, and unsmiling. "Were you in your own mind on waking up last night, Takigawa? John? The first thing you did on waking up in the girls' beds?"

Both visibly recoiled, their righteous indignation cooling to apprehensive. Naru didn't smile.

"What does this have to do with anything?" asked Takigawa.

"Just answer the question. I want to see what happens."

Ayako turned to look at Takigawa, her eyes wide. I glanced at John, who had averted his gaze.

John, ever honest, was the first to answer.

"Yes."

Something hot and not unlike shame coiled up from my stomach. Oh, _John_.

Naru closed his eyes and allowed himself a cool smirk. "I thought so. There aren't two spirits. Just one. As his name wasn't released by the police, we'll have to contact the police. Once we have that name, Lin can take care of the rest. You are excused."

Takigawa, his face blotchy and pale, flinched. "Hold on, you can't just leave us hanging like that. What's going on? How do you know this?"

"And what about all those apparitions of a woman?" asked Ayako. "Or Mai's dream?"

"Spirits have no body," said Naru. "They exist on a plain of impressions and perceptions. Thus, they have nothing forcing them to appear a certain way to others. Despite being my identical twin, Gene appeared to Mai dressed and formed like me, because that is how she first perceived him to be. Our ghost is the man who committed suicide eight years ago due to unrequited love and, perhaps, murder of said love."

"He murdered Veronica?" I said, eyes wide.

"Perhaps," said Naru. "I think it quite likely. I base this off of the time he possessed Mai and tried to strangle me. Veronica was found wearing a silk scarf. It is likely he strangled her with it, which wouldn't leave any sign as to how she died. Then it would be understandable that he would wake up to what he had done and committed suicide."

"Wait, are you getting this all from conjecture?" said John, more than a little disbelieving.

In response, Naru riffled through the back pages of his notebook.

"The cleaners used to create the hydrogen sulfide were cleaners the hotel used. As a client, he wouldn't have had access to them, but he was found with a key used by the maids. Veronica worked here as a maid. It is likely he got it from her. However, both the family and friends contest that Veronica and our man were single, though Veronica was reportedly a beauty who came by mysterious extra money now and then. Her friends suspect she was selling her company." He pulled back to a few more pages, though I didn't know why he'd need the reference, as his memory was excellent. "The man in question lived in the area, so he had no reason to rent out a hotel room. What reason could he have to spend the money to stay here when he worked a job little higher than minimum wage? These rooms don't come cheap, they would've put him in debt for quite some time. Thus, it is easy to come to the conclusion that there was a someone, not a something, that brought him here. But being quite shy, poor, and devoid of any physical charms, he would have had little chance of attracting the beautiful Veronica. Of course he would regret not trying harder while alive, before his anger took over and he strangled her. His regret and his guilt play out by his appearance as Veronica and in the succession of possessions that have been played out on you lot. And don't try telling me you two don't harbor unrequited affections for the girls here, I'm not blind, and Ms. Hara's feelings for me have never been secret."

Both Takigawa and John looked like they had been slapped and stripped. Takigawa just glowered at Naru, while John put a hand to hide his red face and his elbows and knees pinched in.

I felt just as ashamed, though a sudden realization surfaced through the murk.

"The loose maids," I said. "All the marital problems people were complaining about on the phone."

"Very good, Mai."

Ayako was looking at Takigawa, dazed.

He snapped his notebook close. "Now, if that's all, I'd like to see to my fiancé's health. She's been in this tacky tower long enough, and I myself have had about enough of your lot's hypocrisy in telling me how to run my love life."

With that he dropped his notebook on the table, took up my hand with surprising gentility, and pulled me out of the room. The door to base swung shut behind him.

"That was mean, Naru," I said.

"I'm not a nice person." He sounded terse.

"I think you're taking it too personally."

Instead of taking me straight to the elevator, though, he dropped by his room and came out with a white washcloth.

"You've got makeup smeared all over your face." Far more gently than was necessary, he set to work wiping off the smudges on my face. I could sense a fragility from him as he did so, so I didn't bother telling him that I could take care of myself or try to take the cloth from him.

When he was satisfied he dropped the cloth on the floor and closed the door. We continued on our way to the elevator. As we waited, he gave my hand a squeeze.

"I…I think you're right. I didn't know…I could never understand…"

The elevator dinged, opened, and we walked in. I pushed the ground floor button and the doors slid close.

"I don't like that John…feels for you."

The quiet, familiar tone of his secretive vulnerability made me look at him. He had his face turned from me and his usually proud shoulders hunched.

"Even though I know he was possessed and has made a vow of celibacy, just the thought that he had been around you like that, feeling that way…and like you said, I'm mean. He's so much kinder than me, purer, better."

I pulled myself close and put my forehead to his arm. "It's okay to be jealous."

"So this is jealousy? Seems bigger than that. I've been jealous of my brother before, among others. This is…this is a lot more painful. And to think I…that you've ever felt this way…" His hand slipped from my grasp as his arms moved to bring me flush against him. He buried his face into my hair. When he next spoke, he had fallen to a broken whisper. "I am so sorry."

"For what?"

"Don't be stupid. For yelling at you, for not believing you, even if it was only for a minute, then it was all John. I couldn't believe how petty and stupid I became, but that's no excuse. That's no excuse at all, I…" His voice broke. He breathed in and out in one, shaking breath across my scalp. "Don't forgive me, Mai. I don't deserve it."

"What a silly thing to say."

"Not really, because you would."

"A little cocky, don't you think?"

He didn't answer. The elevator dinged and the door open. He didn't let me go right away though, and when he did I happened to glance up and see that his eyes were wet before he quickly looked away.

"Sun. Then perhaps something sweet."

He took my hand again and we walked together through the glitz and glam of the shops and front desk to the bright afternoon sun outside.


	10. A Late Warning

**Oh all right. Fine fine fine fine fine. User Naruisawesome (who stuck it to me by having read all of my Ghost Hunt fanfics since the first one, it seems, she's too well informed, the spy), got the mermaids' name right too. There are two mermaids in "The Scientist and His Fish" named Amanda, and yes, that wasn't a typo. It was on purpose. They're the two Mandys essentially.**

 **Anyhoo, you got two questions left. That means two more chapters. Either you get the questions right or you wait until next week...and the week after, since there are two, afterall.**

Chapter 9

Naru walked with me in the sun and bought me a strawberry crepe at a stand in the park. He even gave me a soft kiss on the cheek, despite the fact that we were in public, and he didn't let go of my hand once. While we sat beneath a tree, watching some kids play on the playground, he called up his mother and asked her to come and get me.

"I think you've done enough for now," he said after hanging up. "But I'd rather not leave you alone. You do better around people, so go do something fun with my mother. I'll wrap up the case."

"You aren't just trying to keep me away from John, are you? Don't you feel bad for him?"

"I should. And maybe I am. But I mean what I said. I'll see you tonight."

We chatted of lighter things until his mother arrived in a rented red mini Cooper. She smiled at us all the way across the park, and even though his mother could plainly see us, he gave me a chaste kiss upon the lips. Two public shows of affection in one day, wow. I was definitely liking this.

"Be safe."

With that, he handed me off to his mother and left back towards the hotel.

"Oh, Mai-chan, you have something on your cheeks. Did your mascara run?" His mother, as I thought of her though I knew her name was Luella, pulled out what looked like a baby wipe and proceeded to rub a lot harder than Naru had beneath my eyes. Despite the discomfort, I smiled at the motherly action.

"Yeah. I don't really do much with makeup, so Ayako was doing me up."

"Would you like us to hire someone to do your makeup and hair for you on your wedding day? I was going to anyways, but my husband said I should ask first."

"That would be really kind of you, though I hope you know you don't have to."

"Nonsense! I've always wanted a little girl to doll up! Which reminds me, did you ever get a look at the Peninsula's ballroom? What do you think?"

I told her I thought it too grand and happily threw myself into a discussion on wedding venues as we walked back to her mini Cooper. Luella made it easy to forget the nightmares of the past few days as though she were a piece of sunshine and sweets herself. She gave her affection freely to me in little touches on my shoulders and arms and once my cheek in the excuse that she wanted to take a better look at the color of my eyes for dress options. Her fingers were warm and ever soft as flannel.

And yet I couldn't feel at ease. Something didn't feel right, and I couldn't stop thinking about John.

The two of us went to the mall to have a walk around, where we talked about wedding ideas and geeked out over baby clothes. I thought it would go away with time, but it only grew worse until I couldn't focus on anything and even got lost a few times in the conversation.

Finally, Luella asked if anything was wrong, her eyebrows puckered in gentle concern. I hesitated.

"Is there any chance…you would be okay stopping by the hotel? I need to check on something."

"If you're talking about your baggage, Naru mentioned he would bring it back with him."

"It's not that, it's a friend of mine. I'm worried about him. Something happened and I'd just like to check on him, you can come, if you like. I love having you around."

She beamed at hearing I liked having her with me and was more than happy to drive me back to the Tokyo Peninsula and tag along. We crossed the front foyer and into the elevator, where I found myself pulling on my fingers and biting my lip. For some reason, the elevator couldn't move fast enough for me.

On the eighteenth floor we stepped out to a hubbub of activity. A few security guards had brought up cameras and thermographers from below and were helping putting them away, directed by Lin. I could faintly hear Naru's voice from within the base half way down the hall.

My heart picked up as we made our way there. Inside I found Naru seated at the sitting area of base with an important looking individual that could have been the owner for all I knew.

"Naru, where's John?"

He frowned at seeing us in the doorway. "What are you doing here?"

"Just tell me where he is, I need to know if he's okay."

To his credit, Naru had worked enough with me over the years to know when to just let me have my way and not ask questions. It sometimes worked to his benefit. He did frown, however.

"I'm not sure. I think Takigawa mentioned he had gone back to his room to pack. Why?"

But I was already backing out and heading towards the number I knew to be John's. I jiggled the door handle. Locked, of course, I didin't have the key card. I knocked, but no one answered.

"Are you alright?" asked Luella. "Is your friend?"

I didn't answer, for I didn't know. All I had to go off was the urgent, constrictive twist in my gut.

I returned to the base, where Naru was once more deep in conversation with the important person. I almost interrupted again to ask where John's key had gone, but I saw the bag of keycards next to the half empty shelves of monitors and went to it. There I found a keycard with John's room number on it and trotted back into the hallway. Luella had to jog to keep up, but by now she too had caught on to my sense of urgency. For a moment I feared the card key wouldn't work, but the light blinked green and the door opened. The automatic light flicked on, and the only sign that anyone had used this room was the sloppily made bed.

A light seeped out from beneath the bathroom door.

Luella made a noise of disgust. "Ugh, what is that smell? It's like rotten eggs or something."

I ran to the door and shook the handle. Locked. The smell had gotten more pronounce, and so had my panic.

"Monk!" I screamed. "Monk! I need you!"

Within a second he was there, hanging out of the door.

"What?" Then his nose wrinkled. "Ugh, what died?"

"Help me open this door! Quick!"

He jiggled the handle and knocked, but no one answered.

"You don't think John's in there, do you?"

I did, and nodded, my voice hitting its highest octave. "We have to get him out!"

By now Lin and a security guard had been attracted by the commotion. Luella backed into the room with her hands to her face and eyes wide.

"Lin, help me break down this door. John's in there."

The security guard protested, babbling something about hotel property and expensive oak, but Lin had already taken his side by Takigawa and started the countdown.

"One…two…three!"

They both kicked. There was a terrible crack of wood and the hinges tore out from the frame. A great waft of rotten egg stench burst into our faces, making my head spin and my stomach turn. The security guard behind us retched.

But inside, just barely out of the way of the fallen door, was John curled up on his side. Next to his head was two open, industrial size jugs of cleaner, and from the looks of it their contents had been poured into the bathtub.

I moved to go to him, but the fumes made my vision run black. The next thing I knew Luella had tugged me out onto the balcony and to the railing, where my vision quickly cleared.

"Hydrogen sulfide," she said, her hand shaking on my back. "You can't go back in there. Don't worry, they're calling an ambulance and getting him out."

Just as she said that Lin and Takigawa appeared with John inbetween them and their other hands to their faces to block out the gas. They spread out his unconscious form onto the cement.

"Watch him, we need to close the door. Keep his airway clear," said Lin.

I dropped to John's side, aided by my dizziness. "John? Oh my god, John, please wake up!"

Lin and Takigawa vanished inside closing the door behind them to keep as much gas as possible away from John. Luella dropped down to John and went to pulling up his knees so his feet were on the ground, where she held his legs up.

"This should help him breathe," she leaned over to him. "John, can you hear me? No, it seems not. His coloring isn't too good."

It wasn't. His lips had gone blue and his face had gone grey. I thought of the dead thing I had seen in the basement and let loose a wild cry of dismay. If I had just listened to that discomforting feeling, if I had just gone back to the hotel when I first thought of it!

The door opened again and Ayako stepped out with a handkerchief by her face. She took Luella's place at John's side and took his pulse.

"It's there, but weak. Could I ask one of you to call the front desk and see if they have any oxygen?"

Luella was already up and through the doors, leaving me to cling to John's hand.

"How did he get those cleaners?" asked Ayako, who had taken up John's other hand to keep her fingers on his pulse.

"The ghost. John would have never done this, he had God. No matter what, it's just not in him!"

Ayako nodded, but didn't say anything.

Neither of us let go of John's hands until the paramedics finally arrived and took him away.

I couldn't help but think that it would be the last time I would see him alive.


	11. Love is Blind

**Yes! The story is title 'Holy' because of John's role in it. I don't think I have to tell you why, because it's pretty obvious. He becomes a priest at 19, which is super duper hard, which means he has to be seriously dedicated in a true way, not in a crazy Puritan sort of way (anyone can smell those). But, in this story, the way the ghost interacts with him is almost desanctifying, like it's fighting against all that makes John holy.**

 **It's also because of the way he holds Mai in regard-as though she is holy.**

 **You could take it as far as saying love is holy and death is holy and your face is holy and your mom-but whatever. I could probably go into a bunch of Mormon doctrine about the family and marriage, but you probably don't want to hear about it. Also, that's just makes it stupid complicated.**

 **Also, after and because of this story, John will step out from the front lines. Though if this chapter doesn't make you ship John and Mai, nothing will.**

 **...one question remains...**

Chapter 10

John lived, but just. The doctors told us they almost lost him once, but that, with treatment, he would come out alright. He'd have headaches and problems with memory and motor functions for a while, but should make a full recovery. If he had stayed where he was for even a few seconds longer he wouldn't have been so lucky.

When he woke up the doctor's had to blind fold him and numb his arm where the IV was as he had a panic attack at the sight of it. Apparently they had had practice with extreme phobias of needles. I was allowed in once he'd calmed down enough. Naru had finally gotten his hands on the much protected name of our ghost and was seeing to the details of exorcising it from the hotel.

Nevertheless, it was dark outside and well past ten when I stepped to John's side. Instantly, he turned his head towards me.

"Mai?"

"How'd you know it was me?"

He raised his left hand straight towards me, as though not blindfolded at all, then paused and drew back.

"Don't be creeped out, but…I can smell you. You, um, have a very distinct scent."

I couldn't help but smile. "What are you, a bloodhound?"

"Only in your case."

An awkward silence fell between us. Biting my lip I reached out and took the hand he had reached to me before changing his mind.

"John…I—"

"You don't have to say anything. I know."

I wasn't for people thinking they could read my minds. Maybe it was because Naru tried too often and only succeeded when it would humiliate me. "Oh? And what do you know?"

"Nothing's changed and I don't want it to change. You have Naru, and that's how it's supposed to be. I…never meant for you to find out. I am a priest, after all." He let out a heavy, tired breath. "After this I'll need to head home for a bit. Cleanse myself."

"But you haven't done anything. It's not a sin to, um, like someone."

He smiled, and the expression was just as it ever was with John. Having his eyes blinded by a cloth and tape didn't help in deciphering his thoughts.

"I can't feel that hand, by the way. Are you holding it?"

I let it go as though shocked. Sure enough, it was the one with the IV in. "I'm sorry, I mean, wait, that doesn't work."

I settled for slumping in my chair, blushing several shades of red, and all too glad that John couldn't see.

"I'm sorry for the trouble I've caused you," he said.

"Don't be. That dead guy got you into my bed, and Naru's the one that overreacted. He's such a child."

"It…" he turned his head as though to hide, despite the fact that all I could see of his face was the lower half. "Mai…"

I waited. After a long minute passed in silence, I decided I was okay with that and idly took up his hand as I thought of what to say, but so far as I could tell, I just wanted to be with him just in case something came up that I could help with. I thought back to the time I had been in the hospital and he had comforted me and got an idea.

"John, how does one pray to God? Do you need to do anything special, like a ritual or something?"

I thought I saw the hair sticking out from his eye bandage shift and imagined he was rising his eyebrows beneath it.

"All you need is a desire to speak with Him. Then you fold your arms—or your hands—and bow your head and say…" he turned his blind head at the sound of the bed creaking. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, just shifting. What's after that?"

"Uh…you open the prayer with, 'Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.' After that you thank Him for any blessings you may have noticed that day—it sets your heart in the right place. Then you can ask anything of Him. Once you're done saying what you feel you need to say, you close with 'in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

I bowed my head over my folded hands as I had seen him do that one time. The white tiled floor felt cold against my knees, as I had slid from my chair to kneel by his bed. My stomach squirmed a bit as I tried to believe I was talking to God—the one who John worked so hard to serve. I tried to think of what to say about the pain I would be causing John, and how sorry I was, but somehow sorry didn't cut it, because what I felt was more than guilt. Maybe it was because I had found that a small part of me loved John too, just a bit beyond friendship. Maybe it was because I feared that. Maybe it was because I was deluding myself to think that.

But God knew all that, didn't he?

"Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name," I hesitated as I heard John take a sharp breath. I clenched my eyes harder. "Thank you for helping me find John in time. Thank you that he's alive. I…I can't pray as nice as him, but I hope you know I really am grateful. I don't know what I would have done if anything had happened to him." A peculiar warm tingle went down my spine, not unlike stepping out into the cold after being in a warm room, except the feeling was anything but cold. "I ask that you please watch over him. He works so hard to serve you and I wish…I wish I could be the one to make him happy, but we all know that isn't going to happen." I thought I might cry. "So, if you're the loving Father he always says you are, is there any chance you could just, you know, spoil him with a crap load of blessings to try and make up for it? You would know better than me on what those could be, but a load of money or a house in the Bahamas wouldn't hurt."

I heard John give a quiet laugh and smiled. I had to wrap this up. My knees were starting to hurt, and I didn't want this to be more awkward than it had to be.

"And if you're okay with it…a family. If you're okay with it, because I don't think you believe marriage and homes to be all that bad, please bless him with a woman who will love him more than air and give him everything I couldn't."

"…in the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

I unfolded my hands and looked up at him. Of course, with just his mouth, I couldn't read his expression. Wondering how I could duck out without seeming too rude, I stood and put a hand to the chair as the blood rushed back to my toes.

"Mai?"

"Yeah?"

He reached out his hand, the non-IV-impaled one, and sort of waved it around as though looking for me. A bit confused, I took hold of it.

"I'm still here," I said. "Did you want to scold me for saying 'crap load' to God?"

In answer, he tugged me. He didn't pull too hard, but it was enough to unset my still refilling-blood legs. I caught myself from smashing into him with my free arm, but just as he let go of my other hand so I could better hold myself and ask him: 'what the freaking crap?' his head ducked towards me, and those weird brain cells that help you to kiss somebody in the dark brought his lips to mine.


	12. Epilogue

**Huzah user Sleonard! That is the perfect answer! Couldn't have said it better myself. (You make it sound way cooler than I thought it was, btw.)**

 **Enjoy the meat of your reward.**

Epilogue

"I don't know why that pervert ghost saw it fit to destroy my pajama pants, and I don't care. Your case, your ghost, your responsibility. You owe me new pajamas, and don't you dare go telling me you got a spare pair of those too."

Once more Naru and I were in his office as he typed away at the computer. This time, however, I had made an effort to cover any point of access Naru might take to say he didn't need to buy me something I had lost working for him. As I wasn't that big of a shopper (being poor tended to do that), and I didn't see it necessary to own more than one, I was down one pair of pajama bottoms and was feeling it. Since we often shared the same sleeping room on cases, I didn't want to have to sleep in my jeans.

Naru didn't answer at first. I allowed him to finish typing his thought, which he did, and he answered with a sigh.

"Surely you have enough to buy your own pair. Pajama bottoms aren't exactly made of gold. You could even ask Ayako for some handmedowns."

"You are so cheap! The point isn't getting the pajama bottoms, the point is you owe me some. I was on the job when they got torn to bits."

"And I was the one traumatized by a half naked girl throwing herself at me. I would think that payment enough."

He had a talent getting me to open and close my mouth like a fish. Traumatized? He saw all my legs, some cheek included, and he says he was _traumatized?_

Course, I had also known Naru long enough to know he was an injit when it came to being polite. But it did hurt. I hadn't thought myself completely unattractive, but still, the worry was there.

Instead of getting angry, which I knew he'd just blow off, I pouted.

"Poor you, then, getting an ugly wife."

I turned to leave, a half formed plan in my mind to buy some shaving cream the next time I was out.

"Ugh, fine."

I stopped and turned back to ask 'fine, what?', but Naru had opened a drawer in his desk and brought out one of those small, sleek little cardboard boxes you used to gift wrap clothing. He dropped it on his desk and pushed it towards me before turning back to his computer, almost sulkily.

Win. Oh lordie, an actually win! "You already got me pajama pants? Then what was the point of insulting me and all that?"

"I don't think I need to answer that."

And he didn't. He loved teasing me.

Oh, I was so buying shaving cream.

Still, I couldn't help but feel a little pleased as I used my nail to cut the scotch tape and lifted up the top half of the box.

All good feelings stopped.

Naru was very carefully typing, not too slow or too fast.

"Oliver Davis, what is this?"

"Pajamas."

Knowing I had to be blushing up a storm, I hooked a finger around a strap and pulled it up. A little baby doll styled cami-dress slumped from my finger, made of nothing but pink sheer cloth and lace. I didn't miss the matching pink thong beneath it.

"What happened to being 'traumatized' by my shorn pajama pants?"

"Just that," he said, turning his face just enough so I could see that he was laughing in one of his more common ways: all in the eyes and little smile of his lips. "Can't say it flattered the right assets."

"Meaning it didn't show them enough! You freaking perv!" I was trying very hard not to smile or flee the office in terror. This was quite new to me.

"Your fault for mentioning stripping. Honestly, it was quite irresponsible, saying such things to a man attracted to you. Which reminds me," he opened up the pen drawer and pulled out an envelope, having said everything in a casual, businesslike manner that made me learn more towards laughing. With two fingers, he tossed the envelope in my direction. I caught it and glanced at the cover.

"Um, this is addressed to you."

"I'd like you to read it."

More than a little curious, I flipped it open and pulled the folded, handwritten note within.

 **Oliver,**

 **Since I think too highly of your opinion, I thought it better you should know the truth. I wasn't possessed when I came into your room. It was a last attempt on my part to make you face my feelings for you. Yes, it was in poor taste, but it was the only way I knew how. On seeing your reaction to Mai walking in and how badly it upset you, I regret doing it. Please know I would do nothing to threaten your happiness, and if Mai is what makes you happy, I will just have to accept that.**

 **I know I've told you before, but I'm so sorry for blackmailing you all those years ago. That also was in poor taste. I think I must be cursed to always have distasteful ways to go about romance.**

 **I hope you will forgive me. I swear any attempts to draw your attention will not happen again, so please feel free to request my assistance should you need it.**

 **Love, Masako**

I wrinkled my nose at it and mouthed 'poor taste.' Naru trying to tease me with lingerie was also in poor taste.

"Why are you showing this to me?" I asked. "It isn't like it changes much whether she was possessed or not. Is it because I told you about what happened with John? Eye for an eye or something?"

"Because I wanted to. If I receive any love letters akin to it in the future, I want you to see them as well."

"Why?"

He gave me the classical 'you're an idiot' look. Guess I'd never grow out of that.

"Because I don't want you to just trust me. I want you to _know_ so you don't have to trust me. After experiencing it for myself, I never want you to have to feel jealous ever again. Take it as my way of protecting you. Goes with the whole how I like feeding you-primal urge to kill the mammoth or however they say it." He said the last part while reading over what he wrote and making corrections. How he could do that was beyond me. If I tried reading one thing and talking about another at the same time, my brain would explode.

Dropping the lingerie into the box, I came around his desk and spun his chair so he faced me. He gave me his usual look of annoyance until I climbed onto his lap and draped my arms over his shoulders.

"Now that," I breathed. "Is sexy."

And if you have to know, after saying that, I more or less gave him the most ravishing make out session he'd had yet.

 **Last note: my second published book is about to become a reality! 'About' as in a few months, but still!**

 **And if it isn't too much to ask, to all of you who have read my first/debute novel, please leave a review on Amazon so other readers can find it. According to what I've heard, it needs at least 20 reviews to become well circulated, but it only has six. : Pretty please?**

 **Oh, and if you're wondering what I'm talking about, check out my fanfiction user page. ^.^ Info is there. AND THANKS FOR READING!**


	13. Sequel Alert! White

Hey ya'll! Just thought I'd let you know that the sequel for Holy is out! Look up 'White.' As per usual, I update at least once a week.


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